The Trader of War Stories

ISBN-13: 978-1984210524

Imprint: Independently published (Kindle Direct Publishing)

324 pages

Genre: Faction

Published: 2018

War has emotionally worn out Matteo Castello, a lionised British Italian journalist who has reported from Bosnia and Chechnya during his early days, after being tasked by an uncompromising London-based editor working in an ever-competitive media industry. After eventually settling for his work location in Beirut, Matteo makes a social clique of local journalists there. For his enduring odyssey in making assignments, his life is made easy when he meets an Iraqi landlord Zouheir, a British documentary maker Brian Hedges based in Colombo and his Egyptian fixer, Ismail. But, he begins to loathe the world order that romanticises war after learning about the life of a disenchanted CIA agent Samantha Bethen, and an exiled Beirut-based Palestinian professor Mustafa Hamdeh. The meetings with a tragedy-laden Palestinian art curator, and Yaqub, a Kashmir-based saffron spice seller, makes him even firmer in his belief, as he progresses in life, thereby becoming high-minded.

As family bonds remain largely absent in his life, the price of his absence is paid by his son Stefano, a gifted footballer disillusioned by British society and his wife Roberta, a prolific novelist and a loner. In all this, there are echoes of flashbacks about Italy, their beloved homeland once ravaged by war and social destitution that made them immigrate like many others. As Matteo returns to London on a final transfer order, will his esteemed career progress smoothly as he anticipates it to? And will he fix the loose ends of separation with his son, wife and relatives back in Italy?